Stephanie Espeut: Island Girl & Yogini

My passion for yoga has given me so much and now I’m wanting to give back and share that knowledge with others.” -Stephanie Espeut

Island Girl & Yogini

Stephanie Espeut is one of Cayman’s very own Yogini’s! Her intricate training is complete. She is qualified to teach as an in-training yoga instructor. She is currently offering free yoga every Sunday at Cayman Cabana. More recently, Stephanie celebrated her 30th birthday in one of the coolest ways possible. Stephanie dedicated her birthday to giving back to others with her inspiring “30 for 30” charity fundraiser, where yoga lovers and newbies made a donation of $30 to attend her yoga event and all proceeds went to support local charities including: The National Trust for the Cayman Islands (Educational Programs), CARE, and Feed Our Future. Other people inspired by this event, also gave donations even if they were unable to attend. Gotta love her!

I love the idea of helping people and healing people. -Stephanie Espeut

A Transformative Year

What lead Stephanie to become a yoga teacher? It all began with a hardcore mission to get into shape. Her transition into living a healthy lifestyle, focusing on exercising and healthy eating resulted in a craving for something more. She took a leap of faith and tried out a hot yoga class — just the awakening she needed. Stephanie says, “After taking that hot yoga class she never looked back.” It was just what she needed. The alignment of her journey towards a healthy lifestyle and finding yoga was the perfect balance. It had a profound impact on her life By taking yoga classes, Stephanie found herself having an incredible transformative year. Now her healthy lifestyle was complete with this new found dedication for mindfulness. One of biggest takeaways Stephanie learned from her transformative year is that she is living proof that you don’t have to be a people pleaser, you can live your life for yourself. Her journey has allowed her to become richly inspired from the knowledge yoga has taught her and the experiences she has encountered along the way. She aligns her passion for yoga with her desire to give back to the community through sharing her experience and teaching others mindfulness and yoga. One of Stephanie’s favorite quotes which really sums up her goal of teaching yoga and helping others on their journey for a healthier lifestyle is from the words of Noah Maze:

I don’t want students to look up to me. I want them to look within.

Stop and Smell The Sea Breeze

Stephanie is the quintessential island girl and an environmentalist at heart. Yoga on the beach or as close as possible is one way she feels more connected to the earth. She finds that the principles of yoga have an environmental component to them. One of the fundamental principles of yoga are: non-violence towards people, environment, animals and creatures. This core way of thinking encourages mindfulness of the environment and how everything is intricately interconnected. Essentially, we are all intertwined. We are bound to the planet and therefore should recognize what we do to the planet we are in turn doing to ourselves.

By putting the environment first we are essentially putting people first, our children to be more specific. We need a healthy and sustainable environment to contribute to us living healthy lives. – Stephanie Espeut

Stephanie eloquently describes our reliance and connection to the environment as thinking from the perspective that our lungs mirror tree branches. There is a deeper connection than just receiving oxygen from trees. We are literally connected to the planet. This way of thinking about the intricate connection between nature and our existence was identified through her training with Yoga instructor and trainer Janelle Kroon at Bliss Yoga. This enlightenment can be embraced by all. Without a healthy planet we cannot survive. This sentiment of a need for air, circles back to a simple yet impactful lesson yoga teaches: just breathe. The magnitude of our extraordinary planet, our role in life’s ecosystem and the interconnection amongst all living things, nature, humans and animals is sometimes too great to take in all at once. We need to step back and just appreciate the awesomeness that is our planet.